Taphonomy of spontaneous ("natural") 



mummification with applications to 



the mummies of Venzone, Italy 



Arthur C. Aufderheide and Mary L. Aufderheide 



Soft tissue preservation ("mummification") of human re- 

 mains is of more than curious interest. Information of inter- 

 pretive value applicable to epidemiology, parasitology, an- 

 thropology, archeology, and many other fields has been 

 extracted by appropriate laboratory technology applied to 

 such tissues (Cockburn and Cockbum 1980:1-8). In most 

 instances postmortem preservation of soft tissues is the result 

 of specific, anthropogenic efforts directed at such an out- 

 come. Methods have varied from evisceration and desicca- 

 tion by heat in the Chinchorro culture of northern Chile 8000 

 years ago (Allison et al. 1984) to the modem techniques 

 using intra-arterial injection of protein-denaturing chemi- 

 cals. 



While the effectiveness of the different methods varies, in 

 most cases the principle of the technique employed is self- 

 evident. However, in certain human mummies no evidence 

 of anthropogenic, conservational effort is apparent, nor are 

 the mechanisms involved in such apparently spontaneous 

 mummification processes obvious (Fornaciari 1982). Some 

 of these are desert burials where the combination of heat and 

 the capillary action of sand are probably the principal ele- 

 ments causing moisture removal from the body before soft 

 tissue dissolution is completed (Cockbum and Cockburn 

 1980:140). Many of the other cases, however, deal with hu- 

 man bodies interred under conditions not normally expected 

 to conserve soft tissues, such as subterranean tombs fre- 

 quently carved out of rock, commonly beneath a church or 

 other religious structure (Kleiss 1967:208), hence their col- 

 lective appellation "catacomb mummies." 



This communication identifies the principal mechanisms 

 involved in postmortem soft tissue lysis and the factors po- 

 tentially available to cause "natural" mummification by re- 

 tarding or arresting these processes. As an example, we ex- 

 amine these possibilities in the case of sp<)ntanet)us 

 mummification of a group of human mummies in Vcnzone, 

 Italy. 



The report concludes with identification of specific defi- 

 cits in our knowledge of such processes, and the research 

 required to provide the information base necessary to under- 

 stand the biological process of spontaneous mummification. 



Mechanisms inhibiting postmortem 

 soft tissue lysis 



Normally, dissolution of soft tissues after death is achieved 

 by enzymatic action. These enzymes are derived from three 

 sources: (I) body tissues themselves, principally intracellu- 

 lar enzymes, mostly of lysosomal origin; (2) bacteria, com- 

 monly from the colon; and (3) insects from the environment. 

 Properties shared by most enzymes include considerable 

 specificity in the molecular stmcture of their substrate as well 

 as a high degree of sensitivity to environmental changes of 

 temperature or acidity (pH) and to the presence of heavy 

 metal ions. Furthermore all enzymes need a liquid medium in 

 which to operate. Prevention of postmortem soft tissue lysis 

 ("mummification") in any given situation can therefore be 

 expected to involve one or more of these areas of vul- 

 nerability resulting in partial or total inhibition of enzyme 

 action. For example, one of the mentioned factors may pro- 

 duce partial suppression of enzyme action, retarding the dis- 

 solution rate sufficiently to permit an arid environment to 

 desiccate the soft tissue and prevent further enzyme activity 

 (Evans 1963:3-22). 



THERMAL ACTION 



Cooling and freezing to preserve perishable foods are part 

 of our everyday experience. Not only the well-publicized 

 mammoths of Siberia (Orslanov et al. 1980:1-5) but also 

 human bodies have been preserved by this method. The latter 

 include Greenland Eskimos (Hansen and Gurtler 1983), the 

 "Prince of el Plomo" mummy from Chile — a nine-year-old 



Zagreb Paleopathology Symp. 1988 



79 



